Abilene breaks high temp record with first 100-plus degree day of year

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Jesse Saiz, 11, plays in the water at the Nelson Splash Pad in Friday’s 104 degree weather. According to the National Weather Service, today’s forecast is projected to be mostly sunny with a high of 97 degrees.

We don’t have to tell you this, but we will — it got hot in Abilene on Friday.

So hot, in fact, that the city broke a high temperature record with 104 degrees recorded at 2:30 p.m.

According to the National Weather Service website, the previous record was 101 degrees, set on May 17, 1978.

Last year on May 17, the high was 88 degrees. The average high temperature for May 17 is much lower: 85 degrees.

If it feels like temperatures jumped from the 80s to the 100s without much in between, it wasn’t just your imagination. NWS meteorologist Patrick Doll said “compressional heating” caused by pockets of air being pulled groundward caused the significant leap in temperature.

Still, Abilenians can expect cooler temperatures that accompany severe weather in the area.

Some of the area was placed under a severe thunderstorm watch by the weather service Friday afternoon, and a tornado touched down in Young County, Doll said.